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Oct. 19th, 2011 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficSo I was thinking about rape in comics the other day (you can just tell this is going to be a cheery post, can't you?). And what gets me is the way it's usually portrayed. Firstly, for a transparently obvious gesture to add "pathos" or "depth" to a character, you'd be surprised how many characters are actually more well-rounded before they get a rape backstory. Like Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk. You'd think a cryogenically frozen WW2 pilot who is now the hard-drinking pilot of a team of female superheroes would, ya know, have enough grist for the mill on her own. And yet, in an issue of Birds of Prey, it's casually revealed that she was raped during WW2.
By this guy. Welcome to comics.
The thing is, rape is usually depicted in a way that does nothing to develop character. It's treated like a condition in a Final Fantasy game; sure, they were raped, but then they went to an inn and saved their game and now they're all better. To mix metaphors, the overall effect is like unlocking an achievement in an X-Box game. "Characterization is now 54% complete instead of 51% complete." And you compare that to how shows like Sons of Anarchy or The Shield treat rape, where they actually spend time on the aftermath and consequences and show how the characters actually, ya know, develop after being assaulted.
It strikes me as less cowardly, if that makes any sense. Just saying "oh, she was raped, but she's better now" isn't a positive or feminist depiction of sexual assault, anymore than having a character say they once had gay sex in college means you've created a well-rounded bisexual character.
What really gets me, though, is that the overall trend in comics seems to be back towards bland Silver Age characters like Barry Allen and Hal Jordan--characters that date from a time when superheroes were defined by their powers instead of their personalities. They're given new "interesting" backstories which tend to be even more cliche than them just being good-natured superhero sorts; I think Barry Allen has dead parents and Hal Jordan had alcoholism (but also a dead father, going by the movies. So, you know, daddy issues. The most masculine of psychological problems). You'd think, if rape were such a sure-fire way to make a character more "complex," someone would think to use it on characters so bland that their defining characteristic is their hair.
Fun fact: An early draft of the Green Lantern movie script includes a sequence where a young Hal Jordan ends up with white sideburns. This was meant to delight comic book fans.
And Barry Allen? Dude wears a bowtie. You know who wears a bowtie? People who were molested as children and the Eleventh Doctor. Is Barry Allen the Doctor? Is he a Time Lord from Gallifrey? Is he known in the Dalek language as the Oncoming Storm? Did he seal the Medusa Cascade? Would he not be willing to have sex with Martha Jones when she would take out a subprime loan to pay for condoms to tap that ass? Oh, and hipsters.
So, there you go, DC Comics, you can have that one for free. Tell me HEAT wouldn't be thrilled to see their hero get the same attention paid to his characterization as your average superheroine gets.
By this guy. Welcome to comics.
The thing is, rape is usually depicted in a way that does nothing to develop character. It's treated like a condition in a Final Fantasy game; sure, they were raped, but then they went to an inn and saved their game and now they're all better. To mix metaphors, the overall effect is like unlocking an achievement in an X-Box game. "Characterization is now 54% complete instead of 51% complete." And you compare that to how shows like Sons of Anarchy or The Shield treat rape, where they actually spend time on the aftermath and consequences and show how the characters actually, ya know, develop after being assaulted.
It strikes me as less cowardly, if that makes any sense. Just saying "oh, she was raped, but she's better now" isn't a positive or feminist depiction of sexual assault, anymore than having a character say they once had gay sex in college means you've created a well-rounded bisexual character.
What really gets me, though, is that the overall trend in comics seems to be back towards bland Silver Age characters like Barry Allen and Hal Jordan--characters that date from a time when superheroes were defined by their powers instead of their personalities. They're given new "interesting" backstories which tend to be even more cliche than them just being good-natured superhero sorts; I think Barry Allen has dead parents and Hal Jordan had alcoholism (but also a dead father, going by the movies. So, you know, daddy issues. The most masculine of psychological problems). You'd think, if rape were such a sure-fire way to make a character more "complex," someone would think to use it on characters so bland that their defining characteristic is their hair.
Fun fact: An early draft of the Green Lantern movie script includes a sequence where a young Hal Jordan ends up with white sideburns. This was meant to delight comic book fans.
And Barry Allen? Dude wears a bowtie. You know who wears a bowtie? People who were molested as children and the Eleventh Doctor. Is Barry Allen the Doctor? Is he a Time Lord from Gallifrey? Is he known in the Dalek language as the Oncoming Storm? Did he seal the Medusa Cascade? Would he not be willing to have sex with Martha Jones when she would take out a subprime loan to pay for condoms to tap that ass? Oh, and hipsters.
So, there you go, DC Comics, you can have that one for free. Tell me HEAT wouldn't be thrilled to see their hero get the same attention paid to his characterization as your average superheroine gets.
